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An Arizona TPM Reader checks in on Kyrsten Sinema. Along those lines, a new poll out today shows her current favorability rating at 18%–5% among Democrats, 25% among Republicans and independents. She wouldn’t clear 10% in a three person race.
From our reader …
What’s good about writing to you about this topic is that I don’t have to do the work of convincing you that Sinema’s antics were not working among any voting group. You figured this out months ago.
One of the things that frustrates me about the self-appointed smart guy conversation about politics is that there are too many commentators who think that there is an untapped majority of voters out there that matches their exact degree of social liberalism and fiscal conservatism. You’d think the rise of Trump and a lot of what’s gone on in politics would have disabused them of that, but no such luck. I haven’t had a lot of time to delve into the commentary on this morning’s news, but I’m imagining there are blog posts being written about how brilliant this is despite the obvious signs that it doesn’t seem to have earned her fans among actual Arizona voters.
One thing that isn’t being commented on is how little work she’s done on the ground here. I live in Tucson, the second largest city in the state. I work in constituent services, so I have contacts in the offices of many elected officials. I can tell you who to call in city council offices, county supervisor offices and all our local federal official offices except one: Sinema’s. There is an office here, but don’t know anyone that works there. Calls we’ve made to that office get referred to Phoenix. Constituents get frustrated. On the other hand, Mark Kelly has great constituent service, as do Grijalva and Kirkpatrick, the two house members that represent our city.
Martha McSally had much the same problem in her last term as a house member as well as her abbreviated Senate term.
She’s come to Tucson, but it isn’t for public events. It’s been visits to factories or sit downs with business organizations. I don’t know if her record of town halls is better in the Phoenix area, but I can’t imagine that it is.
I’ve done canvassing for other races, and it’s amazing how many people bring up their dislike of Sinema even when I don’t bring her up. Mind you, those are Democrats. Still, the only people I deal with that seem to like what she’s doing are Chamber of Commerce types. As we’ve learned over the past five years, those guys aren’t determinative even in Republican politics.
I don’t see her running for re-election at this point. She’s gotten the attention she wants and she can parlay that into some lobbying position in 2024.
